Day 67: Off the Road Adventure

Bay of Five Pirates, Berry Islands, Bahamas. (anchored)

March 22, 2022

We had a later start today.  John, unsurprisingly, was the handyman again.  We have some solar panels and a wind generator and really don’t use much electricity.  Last night the battery alarm went off because our batteries were getting low.  John spent some time investigating – the batteries themselves are showing a higher charge than the panel shows.

We also were invited to a sundowner on another boat – basically a happy hour – and wanted to get back in board in time for that.

We had heard that there was a shortcut to the beach via the former golf club.  This was its own adventure.  If anyone is writing a murder mystery, let me know.  I have a good setting for it. Actually there were several good scenes for those of us with active imaginations: a deserted building, crumbling wrecked cars, and a path through the interior of the island where no one was present.

The clubhouse was apparently never finished – the investors pulled out.  It’s a huge structure that’s not been maintained and it’s wide open to the elements. There’s actually not very much graffiti inside.

After the initial entryway it’s actually pretty inviting.  It’s a sandy road with basic island vegetation.  There’s no traffic which is cool with me – in the Bahamas they drive on the other side of the road than they do in the United States and they drive FAST!  Generally the drivers give lots of room and will give a quick tooting their horns and wave when they go by (and not a middle finger wave). 

It’s just that the further we travelled the more wrecked cars we passed.  They were bashed up, some were rusted, a few looked as if they were being reclaimed by nature.  They’re just there, off a sandy road in the middle of the island.

During our walk we also came to the outer edge of the airport.  John climbed up the berm to see how close we were to the ocean.  He was pretty close to the runway.

I may be able to get John to reenact the scene from Die Hard. 

We finally made it to the Beach Club (their tagline is perfect) but had to take our Goombay Smashes with us so we could pick up our (delivered) bread before the marina store closed.  This is the first hike I’ve ever done with a tropical drink in hand.  I hope it’s not my last.

We made it back just before the marina office closed to find out that no one actually knew when the bread was going to come.  Someone had been sent out to get it but was not answering his phone.  No one was actually sure exactly when the order was sent to Ms. CoolieMae for her to bake it.  We’ll probably all get our bread tomorrow. 

John has a plan to address the battery issue tomorrow.  Hopefully we’ll have some toast at some point then as well.  I have faith in the former but am not so sure of the latter.